Jerusalem's Social Protest: Are You Serious??

Jerusalem's part in tonight's 'March of the Million' social protest was distinctly more social than protest.

Protesting in Jerusalem, beer in hand.

Very few people carried signs; the only flyers I saw being handed out were from the well-organized Arvut movement; the atmosphere was more social reunion than strident demonstration.

More Jerusalem demonstrators

Over the years I've been to dozens of rallies and demonstrations in the Kikar Paris area not far from the Prime Minister's residence, and this was by far the most benign of any of them.

Sign reads: "Welfare State"

There was certainly a diverse crowd of Israelis who showed up (around 40,000, according to YNET--out of a general Jerusalem population of 800,000; approx. half of whom are Jews), but with the folk singers and the beer flowing, there was a distinct lack of revolutionary fervor.

Most people were hanging out with their friends, enjoying the music and the warm evening and by 10:30 p.m the Restobar and the Pizza place were the main attraction.

Restobar keeps demonstrators in  beer and cappuccinos  

Interesting (HT to Aaron Lerner of IMRA) that a telephone poll of a representative sample of adult Israelis (including Arab Israelis) carried out by Shvakim Panorama for Israel Radio's Reshet Bet Hakol Diburim (It's All Talk) program  on 31 August, broadcast on 1 September 2011, found the following: 

If elections were held today (expressed in # of Knesset seats) this is how people would vote:

(Current Knesset seats are in [brackets] ).

18 [28] Kadima (headed by Tzipi Livni)
27 [27] Likud  (headed by PM Binyamin Netanyahu)
16 [15] Yisrael Beiteinu
12 [11] Shas
10 [13] Labor
06 [03] Meretz
03 [---] Green party
04 [03] Jewish Home

04 [04] Nat'l Union
06 [05] Yahadut Hatorah (ultra-orthodox)
11 [11] Arab parties
03 [---] Ehud Barak's Independence Party

(Survey error +/- 4.4 percentage points)

'Hold your nose: We're getting into politics,' read one unmanned sign on a wall

Makes you wonder about the red sign below, which says: 'When the government is against the people, the people are against the government.'

Tel Aviv demonstrators--more politicized than their Jerusalem counterparts.

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